Lewes Farmers Market announces grower conference April 3

The Historic Lewes Farmers Market announced a workshop for small farmers, market gardeners and growers, and market managers is set from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, April 3. Presenters will be Jean-Martin Fortier, farmer, educator and author of "The Market Gardener," as well as Gordon Johnson from the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension.

Fortier will discuss intelligent farm design and soil biology. He is helping small farmers everywhere farm more efficiently. Fortier and his wife Maude-Helene Desroches operate an organic market garden in Quebec, Les Jardins de la Grelinette, where they have achieved optimum productivity and profitability using sustainable, biologically intensive cropping systems.

His goal is to teach farmers how to produce more with less effort, not through expansion of acreage, but through improvement of how they farm so they can turn a profit as small farmers with less effort and a significant gain in quality of life.

Johnson will talk about local resources available to farmers and about season extension. Because farmers lead extremely busy lives, many may be unaware of the resources that are available for farmers, including small-scale diversified farmers, and the dedication of the Agricultural Extension service in getting those resources to the people who need them. Most of these resources are provided through government services and are free of charge to participants.

Scholarships are available to small Delmarva farmers interested in learning more about sustainable practices focusing on growing for the local market. Scholarship recipients attend premier sustainable conferences in the mid-Atlantic. This year's scholarship winners will report on what they learned at the conferences they attended.

Lunch will be provided. Registration is required. To register, email historiclewesfarmersmarket@comcast.net or call 302-644-1436.